By Ottilie Von Henning via SWNS
A teen has spent the last seven years creating a map of a fantasy city and even wrote travel guides and history books about it.
Jake Shipsmith, 14, has been working on this map since he was seven years old and just completed it last Sunday, Sept 8.
The map is made up of nine pieces of A3 paper, reaches three meters long and one meter wide and is a testament to Jake’s love of history and geography.
The city of Ty-taniam, pronounced “titanium,” has several sections which span different historical time periods, including a Tudor town, a Roman city and Medieval villages.
As he got older, Jake stopped working on the map regularly until about a week ago when he decided to finish the piece and completed it over the weekend.
Jake, a secondary school student from Bedminster, Bristol, said: “I can’t even really remember why I started it to be honest.
“I just remember it was something I really enjoyed doing in my free half hour before leaving for school in the morning.
“It made me happy to finally complete the map, just because it had been going for so long that I wanted to see it all finished.”
Alongside the map, Jake has written travel guides and history books for the various areas.
He also created a Certificate of Completion which he drew up for himself once it was done.
There are also specific themed establishments throughout Ty-taniam which refer to the time in which Jake was drawing out the map.
Jake said: “I have a pub called the Jubilee Inn which I drew when it was Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
“I also have a Charles III park after he was crowned as king.
“Some of the books that go with the map as well are tour guides for tourists to Ty-taniam but others are history books for the town itself.”
Jake’s favorite areas of the city include the Tudor area of Chattemdown and the water-side town of Shipton.
He said: “I really like the Tudor center of Ty-taniam called Chattemdown, but the oldest area of the city is the Roman town in the north.
“For these places I like to draw separate images of the houses you’d see there.
“There are some modern places, like Ridley, which has tall towers and an RAF center.”
Jake’s parents, Jonathan Shipsmith, 52, and James Shipsmith, 52, have also contributed to the map, as well as Jake’s twin sister Leonie and some of his primary school classmates.
Jake said: “My dad (Jonathan) added a rowing lake, my dad (James) drew on a harborside and some beach details.
“My sister ended up doing a café in the middle of the water because she thought it was land.
“Some of my classmates added to it as well- one of them drew a zoo!”.
Aside from these contributions, Jake’s parents said 99.9% of the map was done by Jake himself and that they’re immensely proud of his creativity and imagination.
